Humans as Software

Having read the previous post in this blog, I realized that humans themselves can be thought of as software. Every ten years or so we do get a major upgrade, so each decade can be assigned a major version number (as in 1.x, 2.x etc.). The first 10 years or so, the so-called pre-pubescent years reflect our first attempt at everything, so definitely, these are the alpha- and beta-years, or as some programmers mark them version 0.1, 0.5, 0.8, etc.

After puberty hits home, we now acquire so many more and so fundamentally improved features, that one cannot doubt - this is a major new version. We are ready to face the world, to do our little self-promotion, establish a market presence, win over some customers, discover major bugs in our personalities, learn how to apply quick fixes (discovery of alcohol, tobacco and drugs act as service packs).

So by the time we graduate into the real world, with our diplomas safely in our drawers, we can claim to be a version 2.0. Now that's where the fun begins. We now know there are other contenders, there are copycats, there are cheap knock-offs, etc. We consider merging with other software pieces, and always think of looking, just peeking into other people's code.

Few applications survive until the version 12.0 or 13.0. The rarest exceptions would be AutoDesk, SPSS, SAS and probably some other freaks of nature. Most packages shrivel by the time they reach version 5.0.

But then this is nothing but a metaphor gone wrong, isn't it? :)